Upcoming Events

Students from CIM and the CWRU early music program present a wide range of repertoire in this series of early evening performances. To make your evening even more musical, attend the 8pm CIM Orchestra Concert at Severance.

Presented in collaboration with the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Case Western Reserve University Music Department.

Daniil Trifonov Wins Tchaikovsky Piano Competition

Cleveland, Ohio - 06-30-2011 - Twenty year-old Daniil Trifonov, a Russian second-year undergraduate at the Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM) and student of Sergei Babayan, has won first prize in the 2011 Tchaikovsky Piano Competition. He was also selected as the Audience Choice Award winner for piano. The finals were announced today at 2 p.m. EST in Moscow, Russia from the stage of the Moscow Conservatory.

The International Tchaikovsky Competition is held once every four years and is considered one of the major events in the international music community. Previous participants have gained international prominence and become established luminaries on the world's leading concert stages.

Trifonov had captured 1st prize in the Rubinstein International Piano Competition in Tel Aviv in April, 2011 and, one year before, 3rd prize in the Chopin International Competition in Warsaw, Poland. Trifonov is recognized for his highly creative and imaginative music-making and dazzling technique.

During the competition, Trifonov performed Mozart, Tchaikovsky and Chopin and also shared the Mozart prize with Korean pianist Yeol Eum Son.

CIM President Joel Smirnoff states, "The trustees, faculty, staff and students of the Cleveland Institute of Music would like to express our great pride in the spectacular achievements of our student, pianist Daniil Trifonov, during his two years at CIM. We send him our congratulations and our gratitude for the recognition that he brings to his master teacher, Mr. Sergei Babayan and to CIM.

"In Mr. Trifonov, we are seeing the emergence of a major artistic interpreter of the piano literature. One must marvel at his remarkable performances in the recent Chopin, Rubinstein and Tchaikovsky Competitions and we look forward in coming years to hearing and watching him share his special expressive and virtuosic talents with the greater world. Bravo, Daniil!"